Senator John McCain is in Northern Arizona today, visiting with the Flagstaff Chamber of Commerce in addition to a trip to Grand Canyon National Park. U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) brought together officials from federal and state agencies, sportsmen’s and conservation organizations, for a meeting on efforts to protect and preserve the endangered condor.
Among other issues, the meeting highlighted the voluntary programs in Arizona and Utah that incentivize the use of non-lead ammunition in hunting rifles. A string of recent condor deaths have been tied to lead poisoning from hunting ammunition. Looming proposals in the California legislature to impose a statewide ban on lead ammunition and the potential for federal regulators to restrict non-lead ammunition for sporting purposes could inadvertently hurt conservation efforts led by state wildlife experts.
“Decades of work by have gone into repopulating the endangered condor, which went extinct in the wild about 25 years ago” said Senator McCain. “We are close to reaching the recovery milestone of 450 condors and it would be a terrible defeat if that slipped away from us. We need to make sure that everyone, including our federal partners, are working together to protect the condor.”
Participants include:
Arizona Game and Fish Department
Utah Division of Wildlife Resources
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS)
U.S. Forest Service
National Park Service
Arizona Elk Association
Arizona Deer Association
National Shooting Sports Foundation
Peregrine Fund
American Bird Conservancy
